Alabama Senate Race

Why the Hell Is Steve Bannon Still Defending Roy Moore?

Bannon, for all his self-destructive instincts, understands his base better than anybody. “People can whine and complain and say whatever they say quietly, but I think Steve probably knows this: they’re not going to do anything about it.”

There was a brief moment this week where it looked like Steve Bannon would do the unthinkable and back down from one of his positions. The notoriously combative Breitbart News chairman, known for emulating the recklessly single-minded honey badger, was reportedly wavering over maintaining his support for Roy Moore, the Alabama (ex) judge he’d enthusiastically backed in the state’s primary, after multiple allegations arose that he had molested teenage girls during his thirties. Late last week, sources told the Daily Beast, Bannon had been polling his inner circle about whether to proceed, and promised at one point that he would “put [Moore] in a grave myself” if it came out that the former judge—who defeated the Donald Trump-supported candidate Luther Strange in Alabama’s recent special primary election—had lied to him about the allegations.

Since then, more women have come out with specific allegations of harassment and assault, and even more people have corroborated Moore’s creepy reputation in the 70s and 80s. Establishmentarian types, like Mitch McConnell and the Republican National Committee, have withdrawn their support. Moore’s more populist-supporters (and Sean Hannity) have decided to remain neutral and, even Trump, whose Asia trip allowed him to mostly avoid the controversy, remained quiet on the issue until Thursday, when a White House spokesperson sidestepped the issue by encouraging Alabamians to make up their own minds.

But Bannon himself has principles to uphold—tactical principles. Just as Bannon urged the president not to apologize after Charlottesville and the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in this case, too, Bannon has stuck with Moore. “When everybody is on one side and he’s alone on an island on the other, that doesn’t bother him one bit,” said Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart spokesperson. “That, if anything, reinforces his decision to stand behind the guy—not because he thinks Roy Moore is great, not because he even believes Roy Moore, but I think Steve wants to beat everybody else, even if it means standing by a sexual predator.”

As the most prominent and visible conservative backing Moore—even Trump did not endorse him in the primary—Bannon would certainly have egg on his face if Moore lost, especially because of a judgement error as severe as backing an alleged child molester. There’s grumbling in some parts of Bannonworld. The worst part, according to his critics, is that Bannon did not even have to chain himself to Moore, who was always the front-runner in the G.O.P. primary to begin with. “Bannon took credit for Moore’s primary win. He used that as his key evidence for his power in his fight against the establishment,” former Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro wrote to me. “Backing off now means that he must either admit he had little to do with Moore’s nomination (true) or that he was wrong about Moore’s nomination (also true).”

But Bannon’s political calculus doesn’t follow those rules. “Backing away and retreating is not in his D.N.A., no matter how dire the situation may be,” said Bardella. “And I think, oftentimes, Steve thinks that while everyone might think he’s being dealt a losing hand, he’ll find a way to win.” And against the advice and general sentiment among his confidants, who believed that he was more concerned about fighting McConnell instead of electing someone to Congress, Bannon decided to dig in.

It’s possible that Bannon’s blind, short-term support of Moore will alienate him from his allies, horrified that he would remain steadfast to an accused child molester, and should Moore lose, that would almost certainly become an albatross. His long-simmering feud with Matt Drudge already spilled into the open this week when the right-wing trendsetter posted a headline suggesting that Bannon was backing away from “JUDGE WHORE” (“A lesson on leaving politics to the professionals,” he added in a tweet). But given Bannon’s overwhelming personality, Bardella predicted, supporting Moore might not alienate him from his allies. “At the end of the day, people can whine and complain and say whatever they say quietly, but I think Steve probably knows this: they’re not going to do anything about it. So it doesn’t matter.”

And in the absence of significant internal dissent, Shapiro predicted, Bannon will continue to flex his power—or, at least, the illusion of power—for the rest of the Senate race. “It will work so long as the media insist on treating him as a player that others follow,” said Shapiro. “He isn’t.”